1693
                   OF BEELZEBUB AND HIS PLOT

                       by Cotton Mather









şiElectronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R)
DAK Upgraded Edition, Copyright 2000, DAK Industries 2000, Inc(R)şI

{OF_BEELZEBUB_AND_HIS_PLOT
                    Of Beelzebub and His Plot


  THE New-Englanders are a people of God settled in those, which
were once the devil's territories; and it may easily be supposed
that the devil was exceedingly disturbed when he perceived such a
people here accomplishing the promise of old made unto our blessed
Jesus, that he should have the utmost parts of the earth for his
possession. There was not a greater uproar among the Ephesians,
when the gospel was first brought among them, than there was among
the powers of the air (after whom those Ephesians walked) when
first the silver trumpets of the gospel here made the joyful sound.
The devil thus irritated, immediately try'd all sorts of methods to
overturn this poor plantation; and so much of the church, as was
fled into this wilderness, immediately found the serpent cast out
of his mouth a flood for the carrying of it away. I believe, that
never were more satanical devices used for the unsetling of any
people under the sun, than what have been employ'd for the
extirpation of the vine which God has here, planted, casting out
the heathen, and preparing a room for it, and causing it to take
deep root and fill the land, so that it sent its boughs unto the
Atlantic sea eastward, and its branches unto the Connecticut river
westward, and the hills were covered with the shadow thereof. But
all those attempts of hell have hitherto been abortive, many an
Ebenezer has been erected unto the praise of God, by his poor
people here; and, having obtained help from God, we continue to
this day. Wherefore the devil is now making one attempt more upon
us; an attempt more difficult, more surprizing, more snarl'd with
unintelligible circumstances than any that we have hitherto
encountered; an attempt so critical, that if we get well through,
we shall soon enjoy halcyon days with all the vultures of hell
trodden under our feet. He has wanted his incarnate legions to
persecute us as the people of God have in the other hemisphere been
persecuted. He has therefore drawn forth his more spiritual ones to
make an attacque upon us.

  We have been advised by some credible Christians yet alive,
that a malefactor, accused of witchcraft as well as murder, and
executed in this place more than forty years ago, did then give
notice of an horrible plot against the country by witchcraft, and
a foundation of witchcraft then laid, which if it were not
seasonably discovered would probably blow up and pull down all the
churches in the country. And we have now with horror seen the
discovery of such a witchcraft! An army of devils is horribly broke
in upon the place which is the centre, and, after a sort, the
first-born of our English settlements; and the houses of the good
people there are fill'd with the doleful shrieks of their children
and servants, tormented by invisible hands, with tortures
altogether preternatural. After the mischiefs there endeavoured,
and since in part conquered, the terrible plague, of evil angels,
hath made its progress into some other places, where other persons
have been in like manner diabolically handled. These our poor
afflicted neighbours, quickly after they become infected and
infested with these daemons, arrive to a capacity of discerning
those which they conceive the shapes of their troublers; and
notwithstanding the great and just suspicion, that the daemons
might impose the shapes of innocent persons in their spectral
exhibitions upon the sufferers (which may perhaps prove no small
part of the witch-plot in the issue), yet many of the persons thus
represented being examined, several of them have been convicted of
a very damnable witchcraft. Yea, more than one, twenty have
confessed that they have signed unto a book which the devil show'd
them, and engaged in his hellish design of bewitching and ruining
our land. We know not, at least I know not, how far the delusions
of Satan may be interwoven into some circumstances of the
confessions; but one would think in the rules of understanding
human affairs are at an end, if after so many most voluntary
harmonious confessions, made by intelligent persons of all ages, in
sundry towns, at several times, we must not believe the main
strokes wherein those confessions all agree; especially when we
have a thousand preternatural things every day before our eyes,
wherein the confessors do acknowledge their concernment, and give
demonstration of their being so concerned. If the devils now can
strike the minds of men with any poisons of so fine a composition
and operation, that scores of innocent people shall unite in
confessions of a crime which we see actually committed, it is a
thing prodigious, beyond the wonders of the former ages, and it
threatens no less than a sort of dissolution upon the world. Now,
by these confessions 'tis agreed that the devil has made a dreadful
knot of witches in the country, and by the help of witches has
dreadfully increased that knot; that these witches have driven a
trade of commissioning their confederate spirits, to do all sorts
of mischiefs to the neighbours, whereupon there have ensued such
mischievous consequences upon the bodies and estates of the
neighbourhood, as could not otherwise be accounted for. Yea, that
at prodigious witch-meetings, the wretches have proceeded so far as
to concert and consult the methods of rooting out the Christian
religion from this country, and setting up instead of it, perhaps
a more gross diabolesm than ever the world saw before. And yet it
will be a thing little short of miracle, if in so spread a business
as this, the devil should not get in some of his juggles to
confound the discovery of all the rest....

  I have now published a most awful and solemn warning for
ourselves at this day; which has four propositions comprehended in
it.

  Proposition I. That there is a devil, is a thing doubted by,
none but such as are under the influences of the devil. For any to
deny the being of a devil must be from an ignorance or profaneness,
worse than diabolical. A devil. What is that? We have a definition
of the monster, in Eph. vi. 12. A spiritual wickedness, that is, a
wicked spirit. A devil is a fallen angel, an angel fallen from the
fear and love of God, and from all celestial glories; but fallen to
all manner of wretchedness and cursedness. He was once in that
order of heavenly creatures which God in the beginning made
ministering spirits, for his own peculiar service and honour, in
the management of the universe; but we may now write that epitaph
upon him, 'How art thou fallen from heaven! thou hast said in thine
heart, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; but thou art
brought down to hell!' A devil is a spiritual and rational
substance, by his apostacy from God inclined unto all that is
vicious, and for that apostacy confined unto the atmosphere of this
earth, in chains unto darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.
This is a devil; and the experience of mankind, as well as the
testimony of Scripture, does abundantly prove the existence of such
a devil.

  About this devil, there are many things whereof we may
reasonably and profitably be inquisitive; such things, I mean, as
are in our Bibles reveal'd unto us; according to which if we do not
speak, on so dark a subject, but according to our own uncertain and
perhaps humoursome conjectures, there is no light in us. I will
carry you with me but unto one paragraph of the Bible, to be
informed of three things relating to the devil; 'tis the story of
the Gadaren Energumen, in the fifth chapter of Mark.

  First, then, 'tis to be granted; the devils are so many, that
some thousands can sometimes at once apply themselves to vex one
child of man. It is said, in Mark v. 15, he that was possessed with
the devil had the legion. Dreadful to be spoken! A legion consisted
of twelve thousand five hundred people; and we see that in one man
or two, so many devils can be spared for a garrison. As the prophet
cryed out, 'Multitudes, multitudes, in the Valley of Decision!' So
I say, there are multitudes, multitudes, in the, valley of
destruction, where the devils are! When we speak of the devil, 'tis
a name of multitude; it means not one individual devil, so potent
and scient, as perhaps a Manichee would imagine; but it means a
kind which a multitude belongs unto. Alas, the devils they swarm
about us, like the frogs of Egypt, in the, most retired of our
chambers. Are we at our boards? There will be devils to tempt us
unto sensuality. Are we in our beds? There will be devils to tempt
us unto carnality. Are we in our shops? There will be devils to
tempt us unto dishonesty. Yea, though we get into the church of
God, there will be devils to haunt us in the very temple itself,
and there tempt us to manifold misbehaviours. I am verily perswaded
that there are very few human affairs whereinto some devils are not
insinuated. There is not so much as a journey intended, but Satan
will have an hand in hindering or furthering of it.

  Secondly, 'Tis to be supposed, that there is a sort of
arbitrary, even military government, among the devils. This is
intimated, when in Mar. v. 9, the unclean spirit said, 'My name is
Legion.' They are such a discipline as legions use to be. Hence we
read about the prince of the power of the air. Our air has a power?
or an army of devils in the high places of it; and these devils
have a prince over them, who is king over the children of pride.
'Tis probable that the devil, who was the ringleader of that
mutinous and rebellious crew which first shook off the authority of
God, is now the general of those hellish armies; our Lord that
conquered him has told us the name of him; 'tis Belzebub; 'tis he
that is the devil and the rest are his angels, or his souldiers.
Think on vast regiments of cruel and bloody French dragoons, with
an intendant over them, overrunning a pillaged neighborhood, and
you will think a little what the constitution among the devils is.

  Thirdly, 'tis to be supposed that some devils are more
peculiarly commission'd, and perhaps qualify'd, for some countries,
while others are for others. This is intimated when in Mar. v. 10
the devils besought our Lord much, that he would not send them away
out of the country. Why was that? But in all probability, because
these devils were more able to do the works of the devil, in such
a country, than in another.

  It is not likely that every devil does know every language; or
that every devil can do every mischief. 'Tis possible that the
experience, or, if I may call it so, the education of all devils is
not alike, and that there may be some difference in their
abilities. If one might make an inference from what the devils do,
to what they are, one cannot forbear dreaming that there are
degrees of devils. Who can allow that such trifling daemons, as
that of Mascon, or those that once infested our Newberry, are of so
much grandeur, as those daemons, whose games are mighty kingdoms?
Yea, 'tis certain, that all devils do not make a like figure in the
invisible world. Nor does it look agreeably that the daemons, which
were the familiars of such a man as the old Apollonius, differ not
from those baser goblins that choose to nest in the filthy and
loathsome rags of a beastly sorceress. Accordingly, why may not
some devils be more accomplished for what is to be done in such and
such places, when others must be detach'd for other territories?
Each devil, as he sees his advantage, cries out, 'Let me be in this
country, rather than another.' But enough, if not too much, of
these things....

  Indeed, as the devil does begrutch us all manner of good, so
he does annoy us with all manner of woe, as often as he finds
himself capable of doing it. But shall we mention some of the
special woes with which the devil does usually infest the world!
Briefly then: plagues are some of those woes with which the devil
troubles us. It is said of the Israelites, in I. Cor. x. 10, 'They
were destroyed of the destroyer.' That is, they had the plague
among them. 'Tis the destroyer, or the devil, that scatters plagues
about the world. Pestilential and contagious diseases, 'tis the
devil who does oftentimes invade us with them. 'Tis no uneasy thing
for the devil to impregnate the air about us with such malignant
salts, as meeting with the salt of our microcosm shall immediately
cast us into that fermentation and putrefaction, which will utterly
dissolve all the vital tyes within us; ev'n as an aqua-fortis, made
with a conjunction of nitre and vitriol, corrodes what it seizes
upon. And when the devil has raised those arsenical fumes, which
become venomous quivers full of terrible arrows, how easily can he
shoot the deleterious miasms into those juices or bowels of men's
bodies, which will soon enflame them with a mortal fire! Hence come
such plagues as that beesom of destruction, which within our memory
swept away such a throng of people from one English city in one
visitation. And hence those infectious fevers, which are but so
many disguised plagues among us, causing epidemical desolations.
Again, wars are also some of those woes, with which the devil
causes our trouble. It is said in Rev. xii. 17, 'The dragon was
wrath, and he went to make war'; and there is in truth scarce any
war, but what is of the dragon's kindling. The devil is that
Vulcan, out of whose forge comes the instruments of our wars, and
it is he that finds us employments for those instruments. We read
concerning daemoniacks, or people in whom the devil was, that they
would cut and wound themselves; and so, when the devil is in men,
he puts 'em upon dealing in that barbarous fashion with one
another. Wars do often furnish him with some thousands of souls in
one morning from one acre of ground; and for the sake of such
Thyestaean banquets, he will push us upon as many wars as he can.

  Once more, why may not storms be reckoned among those woes,
with which the devil does disturb us? It is not improbable that
natural storms on the world are often of the devils raising. We are
told in Job i. 11, 12, 19, that the devil made a storm, which
hurricano'd the house of Job upon the heads of them that were
feasting in it. Paracelsus could have have informed the devil, if
he had not been informed, as be sure he was before, that if much
aluminious matter, with salt petre not throughly prepared, be
mixed, they will send up a cloud of smoke, which will come down in
rain. But undoubtedly the devil understands as well the way to make
a tempest as to turn the winds at the solicitation of a Laplander;
whence perhaps it is, that thunders are observed oftner to break
upon churches than upon any other buildings; and besides many a
man, yea, many a ship, yea, many a town has miscarried, when the
devil has been permitted from above to make an horrible tempest.
However, that the devil has raised many metaphorical storms upon
the church, is a thing than which there is nothing more notorious.
It was said unto believers in Rev. ii. 10, 'The devil shall cast
some of you into prison.' The devil was he that at first set Cain
upon Abel to butcher him, as the apostle seems to suggest, for his
faith in God, as a rewarder. And in how many persecutions, as well
as heresies, has the devil been ever since engaging all the
children of Cain! That serpent the devil has acted his cursed seed
in unwearied endeavours to have them, of whom the world is not
worthy, treated as those who are not worthy to live in the world.
By the impulse of the devil 'tis that first the old heathens, and
then the mad Arians were pricking briars to the true servants of
God; and that the Papists that came after them have out done them
all for slaughters upon those that have been accounted as the sheep
for the slaughterers. The late French persecution is perhaps the
horriblest that ever was in the world. And as the devil of Mascon
seems before to have meant it in his out-cries upon the miseries
preparing for the poor Huguenots! Thus it has been all acted by a
singular fury of the old dragon inspiring of his emissaries.


{THE_TRIAL_OF_GEORGE_BURROUGHS
The Trial of George Burroughs

  GLAD should I have been if I had never known the name of this
man; or never had this occasion to mention so much as the first
letters of his name. But the government requiring some account of
his trial to be inserted in this book, it becomes me with all
obedience to submit unto the order.

  This G. B. was indicted for witch-craft, and in the
prosecution of the charge against him he was accused by five or six
of the bewitched, as the author of their miseries; he was accused
by eight of the confessing witches, as being an head actor at some
of their hellish rendezvouses, and one who had the promise of being
a king in Satan's kingdom, now going to be erected. He was accused
by nine persons for extraordinary lifting, and such feats of
strength as could not be done without a diabolical assistance. And
for other such things he was accused, until about thirty
testimonies were brought in against him; nor were these judg'd the
half of what might have been considered for his conviction. However
they were enough to fix the character of a witch upon him according
to the rules of reasoning, by the judicious Gaule, in that case
directed.

  The Court being sensible that the testimonies of the parties
bewitched use to have a room among the suspicions or presumptions
brought in against one indicted for witch-craft, there were now
heard the testimonies of several persons, who were most notoriously
bewitched, and every day tortured by invisible hands, and these now
all charged the spectres of G. B. to have a share in their
torments. At the examination of this G. B. the bewitched people
were grievously harassed with preternatural mischiefs, which could
not possibly be dissembled; and they still ascribed it unto the
endeavours of G. B. to kill them. And now upon the tryal one of the
bewitched persons testified that in her agonies, a little black
hair'd man came to her, saying his name was B. and bidding her set
her hand to a book which he shewed unto her; and bragging that he
was a conjurer above the ordinary rank of witches; that he often
persecuted her with the offer of that book, saying, 'She should be
well, and need fear nobody, if she would but sign it.' But he
inflicted cruel pains and hurts upon her because of her denying so
to do. The testimonies of the other sufferers councurred with
these; and it was remarkable that, whereas biting was one of the
ways which the witches used for the vexing of the sufferers, when
they cry'd out of G. B. biting them, the print of the teeth would
be seen on the flesh of the complainers, and just such a set of
teeth as G. B.'s would then appear upon them, which could be
distinguished from those of some other men's. Others of them
testified that in their torments G. B. tempted them to go unto a
sacrament, unto which they perceived him with a sound of trumpet
summoning of other witches, who quickly after the sound would come
from all quarters unto the rendezvous. One of them falling into a
kind of trance affirmed that G. B. had carried her away into a very
high mountain, where he shewed her mighty and glorious kingdoms,
and said, 'He would give them all to her, if she would write in his
book'; but she told him, 'They were none of his to give'; and
refused the motions; enduring of much misery for that refusal.

  It cost the Court a wonderful deal of trouble, to hear the
testimonies of the sufferers; for when they were going to give in
their depositions, they would for a long time be taken with fits
that made them uncapable of saying any thing. The chief judge asked
the prisoner, who he thought hindered these witnesses, from giving
their testimonies? And be answered, 'He supposed it was the devil.'
That honourable person replied, 'How comes the devil then to be so
loath to have any testimony borne against you?' Which cast him into
very great confusion.

  It has been a frequent thing for the bewitched people to be
entertained with apparitions of ghosts of murdered people, at the
same time that the spectres of the witches trouble them. These
ghosts do always affright the beholders, more than all the other
spectral representations; and when they exhibit themselves, they
cry out of being murthered by the witchcrafts or other violences of
the persons who are then in spectre present. It is further
considered that once or twice these apparitions have been seen by
others, at the very same time they have shewn themselves to be
bewitched; and seldom have there been these apparitions, but when
something unusual or suspected have attended the death of the party
thus appearing. Some that have been accused by these apparitions
accosting of the bewitched people, who had never heard a word of
any such persons ever being in the world, have upon a fair
examination freely and fully confessed the murthers of those very
persons, although these also did not know how the apparitions had
complained of them. Accordingly several of the bewitched had given
in their testimony, that they had been troubled with the
apparitions of two women, who said that they were G. B.'s two
wives, and that he had been the death of them; and that the
magistrates must be told of it, before whom if B. upon his tryal
denied it, they, did not know but that they should appear again in
Court. Now, G. B. had been infamous for the barbarous usage of his
two late wives, all the country over. Moreover, it was testified,
the spectre of G. B. threatning of the sufferers told them he had
killed (besides others) Mrs. Lawson and her daughter Ann. And it
was noted, that these were the vertuous wife and daughter of one at
whom this G. B. might have a prejudice for his being serviceable at
Salem Village, from whence himself had in ill terms removed some
years before; and that when they dy'd, which was long since, there
were some odd circumstances about them, which made some of the
attendents there suspect something of witch-craft, though none
imagined from what quarter it should come.

  Well, G. B. being now upon his tryal, one of the bewitched
persons was cast into horror at the ghost of B.'s two deceased
wives then appearing before him, and crying for vengeance against
him. Hereupon several of the bewitched persons were succesively
called in, who all, not knowing what the former had seen and said,
concurred in their horror of the apparition, which they affirmed
that he had before him. But he, though much appalled, utterly
deny'd that he discern'd any thing of it; nor was it any part of
his conviction.

  Judicious writers have assigned it a great place in the
conviction of witches, when persons are impeached by, other
notorious witches to be as ill as themselves; especially, if the
persons have been much noted for neglecting the worship of God.
Now, as there might have been testimonies enough of G. B.'s
antipathy to prayer, and the other ordinances of God, though by his
profession singularly obliged thereunto; so there now came in
against the prisoner the testimonies of several persons, who
confessed their own having been horrible witches, and ever since
their confessions had been themselves terribly tortured by the
devils and other witches, even like the other sufferers; and
therein undergone the pains of many deaths for their confessions.

  These now testified that G. B. had been at witch-meetings with
them, and that he was the person who had seduc'd and compell'd them
into the snares of witchcraft; that he promised them fine cloaths
for doing it; that he brought poppets to them, and thorns to stick
into those poppets, for the afflicting of other people; and that he
exhorted them with the rest of the crew to bewitch all Salem
Village, but be sure to do it gradually, if they would prevail in
what they did.

  When the Lancashire witches were condemn'd, I don't remember
that there was any considerable further evidence than that of the
bewitched, and than that of some that confessed. We see so much
already against G. B. But this being indeed not enough, there were
other things to render what had been already produced credible.

  A famous divine recites this among the convictions of a witch:
'The testimony, of the party bewitched, whether pining or dying;
together with the joint oaths of sufficient persons that have seen
certain prodigious pranks or feats wrought by the party accused.'
Now, God had been pleased so to leave this G. B. that he had
ensnared himself by several instances, which he had formerly given
of a preternatural strength, and which were now produced against
him. He was a very puny man, yet he had often done things beyond
the strength of a giant. A gun of about seven foot barrel, and so
heavy that strong men could not steadily hold it out with both
hands; there were several testimonies, given in by persons of
credit and honor, that he made nothing of taking up such a gun
behind the lock with but one hand, and holding it out like a pistol
at arms-end. G. B. in his vindication was so foolish as to say,
'That an Indian was there, and held it out at the same time.'
Whereas none of the spectators ever saw any such Indian; but they
supposed, the 'Black Man' (as the witches call the devil; and they
generally say he resembles an Indian) might give him that
assistance. There was evidence likewise brought in, that he made
nothing of taking up whole barrels fill'd with molasses or cider in
very disadvantageous postures and carrying of them through the
difficultest places out of a canoe to the shore.

  Yea, there were two testimonies, that G. B. with only putting
the forefinger of his right hand into the muzzle of an heavy gun,
a fowling-piece of about six or seven foot barrel, did lift up the
gun, and hold it out at arms-end; a gun which the deponents thought
strong men could not with both hands lift up and hold out at the
butt-end, as is usual. Indeed, one of these witnesses was over-
perswaded by some persons to be out of the way upon G. B.'s tryal;
but he came afterwards with sorrow for his withdraw, and gave in
his testimony. Nor were either of these witnesses made use of as
evidences in the trial.

  There came in several testimonies relating to the domestick
affairs of G. B. which had a very hard aspect upon him; and not
only prov'd him a very ill man; but also confirmed the belief of
the character which had been already fastened on him.

  'Twas testified that, keeping his two successive wives in a
strange kind of slavery, he would when he came home from abroad
pretend to tell the talk which any had with them; that he has
brought them to the point of death, by his harsh dealings with his
wives, and then made the people about him to promise that in case
death should happen, they would say nothing of it: that he used all
means to make his wives write, sign, seal, and swear a covenant
never to reveal any of his secrets; that his wives had privately
complained unto the neighbours about frightful apparitions of evil
spirits with which their house was sometimes infested; and that
many such things have been whispered among the neighbourhood. There
were also some other testimonies relating to the death of people
whereby the consciences of an impartial jury were convinced that G.
B. had bewitched the persons mentioned in the complaints. But I am
forced to omit several passages, in this, as well as in all the
succeeding tryals, because the scribes who took notice of them have
not supplyed me.

  One Mr. Ruck, brother-in-law to this G. B., testified that G.
B. and himself, and his sister, who was G. B.'s wife, going out for
two or three miles to gather straw-berries, Ruck with his sister,
the wife of G. B., rode home very softly, with G. B. on foot in
their company, G. B. stept aside a little into the bushes;
whereupon they halted and halloo'd for him. He not answering, they
went away homewards with a quickened pace, without expectation of
seeing him in a considerable while; and yet when they were got near
home, to their astonishment, they, found him on foot with them,
having a basket of straw-berries. G. B. immediately then fell to
chiding his wife, on the account of what she had been speaking to
her brother, of him, on the road. Which when they wondered at, he
said, 'He knew their thoughts.' Ruck being startled at that, made
some reply, intimating that the devil himself did not know so far;
but G. B. answered, 'My God makes known your thoughts unto me.' The
prisoner now at the bar had nothing to answer, unto what was thus
witnessed against him, that was worth considering. Only he said,
'Ruck, and his wife left a man with him, when they left him.' Which
Ruck now affirm'd to be false; and when the Court asked G. B. 'What
the man's name was?' his countenance was much altered; nor could he
say, who 'twas. But the Court began to think that he then step'd
aside only, that, by the assistance of the black man, he might put
on his invisibility, and in that fascinating mist gratifie his own
jealous humour to hear what they said of him. Which trick of
rendering themselves invisible, our witches do in their confessions
pretend, that they sometimes are masters of; and it is the more
credible, because there is demonstration that they often render
many other things utterly invisible.

  Faltering, faulty, unconstant, and contrary answers upon
judicial and deliberate examination, are counted some unlucky
symptoms of guilt, in all crimes, especially in witchcrafts. Now
there never was a prisoner more eminent for them than G. B. both at
his examination and on his trial. His tergiversations,
contradictions, and falsehoods were very sensible. He had little to
say, but that he had heard some things that he could not prove,
reflecting upon the reputation of some of the witnesses.

  Only he gave in a paper to the jury; wherein, although he had
many, times before granted, not only that there are witches, but
also that the present sufferings of the country are the effects of
horrible witchcrafts, yet he now goes to evince it, 'That there
neither are, nor ever were witches, that having made a compact with
the devil can send a devil to torment other people at a distance.'
This paper was transcribed out of Ady; which the Court presently
knew, as soon as they heard it. But he said, he had taken none of
it out of any book; for which his evasion afterwards was, that a
gentleman gave him the discourse in a manuscript, from whence he
transcribed it.

  The jury brought him in guilty. But when he came to die, he
utterly deni'd the fact whereof he had been thus convicted.


{HOW_MARTHA_CARRIER_WAS_TRIED
How Martha Carrier was Tried


  MARTHA CARRIER was indicted for the bewitching certain
persons, according to the form usual in such cases pleading not
guilty to her indictment; there were first brought in a
considerable number of the bewitched persons; who not only made the
Court sensible of an horrid witchcraft committed upon them, but
also deposed that it was Martha Carrier or her shape that
grievously tormented them by biting, pricking, pinching and
choaking of them. It was further deposed that while this Carrier
was on her examination before the magistrates, the poor people were
so tortured that every one expected their death- upon the very
spot, but that upon the binding of Carrier they were eased.
Moreover the look of Carrier then laid the afflicted people for
dead; and her touch, if her eye at the same time were off them,
raised them again. Which things were also now seen upon her tryal.
And it was testified, that upon the mention of some having their
necks twisted almost round by the shape of this Carrier, she
replyed, 'It's no matter though their necks had been twisted quite
off.'

  Before the trial of this prisoner several of her own children
had frankly and fully confessed, not only that they were witches
themselves, but that this their mother had made them so. This
confession they made with great shews of repentance, and with much
demonstration of truth. They related place, time, occasion; they
gave an account of journeys, meetings and mischiefs by them
performed, and were very credible in what they said. Nevertheless,
this evidence was not produced against the prisoner at the bar,
inasmuch as there was other evidence enough to proceed upon.

  Benjamin Abbot gave his testimony that last March was a
twelve-month this Carrier was very angry with him upon laying out
some land, near her husband's. Her expressions in this anger were,
'That she would stick as close to Abbot as the bark stuck to the
tree; and that he should repent of it afore seven years came to an
end, so as Doctor Prescot should never cure him.' These words were
heard by others besides Abbot himself; who also heard her say, 'She
would hold his nose as close to the grindstone as ever it was held
since his name was Abbot.' Presently after this he was taken with
a swelling in his foot, and then with a pain in his side, and
exceedingly tormented. It bred into a sore, which was lanced by
Doctor Prescot, and several gallons of corruption ran out of it.
For six weeks it continued very bad, and then another sore bred in
the groin, which was also lanced by Doctor Prescot. Another sore
then bred in his groin, which was likewise cut, and put him to very
great misery. He was brought unto death's door, and so remained
until Carrier was taken and carried away by the constable, from
which very day he began to mend and so grew better every day, and
is well ever since.

  Sarah Abbot also, his wife, testified that her husband was not
only all this while afflicted in his body, but also that strange
extraordinary and unaccountable calamities befell his cattle; their
death being such as they could guess at no natural reason for.

  Allin Toothaker testify'd that Richard, the son of Martha
Carrier, having some difference with him, pull'd him down by the
hair of the head. When he rose again he was going to strike at
Richard Carrier; but fell down flat on his back to the ground and
had not power to stir hand or foot, until he told Carrier he
yielded; and then he saw the shape of Martha Carrier go off his
breast.

  This Toothaker had received a wound in the wars; and be now
testify'd that Martha Carrier told him he should never be cured.
Just afore the apprehending of Carrier, he could thrust a knitting
needle into his wound, four inches deep; but presently after her
being seized, he was thoroughly healed.

  He further testify'd, that when Carrier and he sometimes were
at variance, she would clap her hands at him, and say, 'He should
get nothing by it.' Whereupon he several times lost his cattle by
strange deaths, whereof no natural causes should be given.

  John Rogger also testifyed that upon the threatning words of
this malicious Carrier, his cattle would be strangely bewitched; as
was more particularly then described.

  Samuel Preston testify'd that about two years ago, having some
difference with Martha Carrier, he lost a cow in a strange
preternatural unusual manner; and about a month after this the said
Carrier, having again some difference with him, she told him, He
had lately lost a cow and it should not be long before he lost
another'; which accordingly came too pass; for he had a thriving
and well-kept cow, which without any known cause quickly fell down
and dy'd.

  Phebe Chandler testify'd that about a fortnight before the
apprehension of Martha Carrier, on a Lord's-day, while the psalm
was singing in the church, this Carrier then took her by the
shoulder and shaking her asked her where she lived. She made her no
answer, although as Carrier, who lived next door to her father's
house, could not in reason but know who she was. Quickly after
this, as she was at several times crossing the fields, she heard a
voice, that she took to be Martha Carrier's, and it seem'd as if it
was over her head. The voice told her she should within two or
three days be poisoned. Accordingly, within such a little time, one
half of her right hand became greatly swollen, and very painful; as
also part of her face; whereof she can give no account how it came.
It continued very bad for some dayes; and several times since she
has had a great pain in her breast, and been so seized on her legs
that she has hardly been able to go. She added that lately, going
well to the house of God, Richard, the son of Martha Carrier,
look't very earnestly upon her, and immediately her hand, which had
formerly been poisoned, as is above said, began to pain her
greatly, and she had a strange burning at her stomach; but was then
struck deaf so that she could not hear any of the prayer, or
singing, till the two or three last words of the psalm.

  One Foster, who confessed her own share in the witchcraft for
which the prisoner stood indicted, affirm'd that she had seen the
prisoner at some of their witch-meetings, and that it was this
Carrier, who perswaded her to be a witch. She confess'd, that the
devil carry'd them on a pole to a witch-meeting but the pole broke,
and she hanging about Carrier's neck, they both fell down, and she
then received an hurt by the fall whereof she was not at this very
time recovered.

  One Lacy, who likewise confessed her share in this witchcraft,
now testify'd that she and the prisoner were once bodily present at
a witch-meeting in Salem Village, and that she knew the prisoner to
be a witch, and to have been at a diabolical sacrament, and that
the prisoner was the undoing of her and her children, by enticing
them into the snare of the devil.

  Another Lacy, who also confessed her share in this witchcraft,
now testify'd that the prisoner was at the witch-meeting, in Salem
Village, where they had bread and wine administered unto them.

  In the time of this prisoner's tryal, one Susanna Sheldon in
open Court had her hands unaccountably ty'd together with a wheel-
band, so fast that without cutting it could not be loosed. It was
done by a spectre; and the sufferer affirm'd it was the prisoner's.

  Memorandum. This rampant hag, Martha Carrier, was the person,
of whom the confessions of the witches, and of her own children
among the rest, agreed, that the devil had promised her she should
be Queen of Hell.


{THE_INVISIBLIZING_OF_WHICHES
The Invisiblizing of Whiches


  IN all the witchcraft which now grievously vexes us, I know
not whether anything be more unaccountable than the trick which the
witches have to render themselves, and their tools invisible.
Witchcraft seems to be the skill of applying the plastic spirit of
the world unto some unlawful purposes by means of a confederacy
with evil spirits. Yet one would wonder how the evil spirits
themselves can do some things; especially at invisibilizing of the
grossest bodies. I can tell the name of an ancient author who
pretends to show the way how a man may come to walk about
invisible, and I can tell the name of another ancient author who
pretends to explode that way. But I will not speak too plainly lest
I should unawares poison some, of my readers, as the pious
Hemingius did one of his pupils, when he only by way of diversion
recited a spell which, they had said, would cure agues. This much
I will say: The notion of procuring invisibility, by any natural
expedient yet known, is, I believe, a mere Plinyism; how far it may
be obtained by a magical sacrament is best known to the dangerous
knaves that have try'd it. But our witches do seem to have got the
knack; and this is one of the things that make me think witchcraft
will not be fully understood, until the day when there shall not be
one witch in the world.

  There are certain people very dogmatical about these matters;
but I'll give them only these three bones to pick.

  First, one of our bewitched people was cruelly assaulted by a
spectre that, she said, ran at her with a spindle; though no body
else in the room could see either the spectre or the spindle. 'At
last, in her miseries giving a snatch at the spectre, she pull'd
the spindle away, and it was no sooner got into her hand but the
other people then present beheld that it was indeed a real, proper,
iron spindle, belonging they knew to whom; which when they lock'd
up very safe, it was nevertheless by demons unaccountably stole
away, to do further mischief.

  Secondly, another of our bewitched people was haunted with a
most abusive spectre, which came to her, she said, with a sheet
about her. After she had undergone a deal of teaze from the
annoyance of the spectre, she gave a violent snatch at the sheet
that was upon it; wherefrom she tore a corner, which in her hand
immediately became visible to a roomful of spectators; a palpable
corner of a sheet. Her father, who was now holding her, catch'd
that he might keep what his daughter had so strangely seized, but
the unseen spectre had like to have pull'd his hand off by
endeavouring to wrest it from him; however he still held it, and I
suppose has it still to show; it being but a few hours ago, namely
about the beginning of this October, that this accident happened in
the family of one Pitman, at Manchester.

  Thirdly, a young man, delaying to procure testimonials for his
parents, who, being under confinement on suspicion of witchcraft,
required him to do that service for them, was quickly pursued with
odd inconveniences. But once above the rest, an officer going to
put his brand on the horns of some cows belonging to these people,
which though he had seiz'd for some of their debts, yet he was
willing to leave in their possession, for the subsistance of the
poor family; this young man help'd in holding the cows to be thus
branded. The three first cows he held well enough; but when the hot
brand was clap'd upon the fourth he winc'd and shrunk at such a
rate as that he could hold the cow no longer. Being afterwards
examined about it, he confessed, that at that very instant when the
brand entered the cow's horn, exactly the like burning brand was
clap'd upon his own thigh; where he has expos'd the lasting marks
of it, unto such as asked to see them.
  Unriddle these things.- Et eris mihi magnus Apollo.


                         THE END